*Cllr Joe Cooney. Photograph: John O’Neill
CONCERN is brewing in Broadford at the lack of progress made since its inclusion in a €50m pilot wastewater scheme was announced nine months ago.
In December the inclusion of both Broadford and Cooraclare in the €50 million rural wastewater collection and treatment scheme was announced by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien (FF).
However it took until February 7th for Clare County Council to receive official notification from O’Brien’s Department that their applications for Broadford and Cooraclare had been successful.
Prior to the December announcement, there had been false dawns as it took an inordinate amount of time for O’Brien’s Department to finalise the scheme. They have remained consistent in taking their time with every aspect of the pilot with no sight of new wastewater infrastructure in either village.
Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) had previously threatened not to allow his name forward as a Fianna Fáil candidate for the General Election if either village was not included in the €50m scheme. Now it is highly likely that a General Election will have been held by the time shovels appear in the ground in either Broadford or Cooraclare.
Cathaoirleach of the Killaloe MD, Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) has requested the local authority to write to both the Department and Uisce Éireann “seeking to expedite the process”. He also asked for another East Clare village to be identified for inclusion “if a similar scheme is reopened in the future”.
Senior engineer with Clare County Council, Cyril Feeney outlined that they have held “a number of meetings” with both the Department and Uisce Éireann since February “to develop a pathway for the delivery of the projects”. The original terms of the scheme note that “Uisce Éireann have a vital role to play in both the delivery and as the ultimate end user of the wastewater treatment plants and sewer networks”.
An up-to-date cost analysis will for the schemes will be provided “at the end of Q4 2024 which will give better certainty of the financial commitment required for the delivery of the project,” he added. The costings will be forthcoming a full year after both villages were announced as successful applicants in the scheme.
Feeney said a future pilot project may not have the “same qualifying criteria and award marking scheme” and that Cooney’s plea to identify another suitable village was “perhaps premature”.
Speaking at a meeting of the Killaloe MD, Cllr Cooney flagged, “there is a lot of concern in Broadford, it was approved in December and there is a concern that nothing has happened since. We are all well aware that Clare County Council are trying their best to get answers from the Department but those answers are not coming. We’re waiting for the Department to sit down and come up with a design for the treatment plant”. He added, “It is getting frustrating again, we’ve to try push it, get answers and get it started up”.
Other local authorities are delaying the scheme, Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) believed. “It is frustrating to see that it is slow to a shovel getting on the ground, I’m nervous when we’re waiting on Uisce Éireann as they are called now and the Department to come up with the checks and balance, Uisce Éireann have done everything to try block this pilot scheme, we need to look at this, if this doesn’t come to fruition then they will be saying why are we waiting, when they came back Irish Water couldn’t give them the spec”. He continued, “It is going to kick down the road if we are expecting Uisce Éireann and the Department, they will put this on the never never, the two we have Cooraclare and Broadford are way more advanced than the other local authority schemes, we as a local authority need to kick on with this, it is not our fault that other local authorities are not as far down the road”.
A trip to Dublin to force action on the project is warranted, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) believed. “I am disappointed that the motion is down and that we have to discuss this again, you’d have imagined once it was approved and Council had letter to say it was approved but it smacks of the permanent Government not wanting to proceed with the project and Uisce Éireann not wanting it to proceed because their line is not new projects but to improve existing ones”.
Hayes continued, “Clare County Council need to pull out the stops, we need to go to Dublin to meet politically, the Minister has allocated the funding but we’re beginning to learn why it took so long and that is because the permanent Government were against it, there’s fear amongst us all”.
That Uisce Éireann are only going to finalise a cost analysis twelve months after Broadford and Cooraclare were included in the scheme is “slightly worrying,” Cllr Pat Burke (FG) observed. “It sounds like the job is going ahead but I don’t like that line of the reply”.
Cooney responded, “Clare County Council have a lot done over the last few years, they are putting the pressure on, we should be going to the Department with officials from the Council asking why there is a delay”. Cllr Hayes added, “In most cases any delegation I’ve been on there’s been a blame game between local authority and the Department, if there is to be a blame game let it happen at a meeting and we will know who is responsible”.
Senior planner, Brian McCarthy advised the meeting that in January, Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) during his stint as Cathaoirleach of the Killaloe MD wrote to the Department advocating that the process be accelerated.
There was no clear agreement outlined at the Killaloe MD meeting if elected members were going to travel to Dublin as a delegation to meet with officials from the Department.
